Concerned residents reached out to share the following email to council.

Dear Members of Council,

As residents of the downtown area, we are angered and appalled that council is allowing Ribfest to take place in such a confined location in the downtown core on the Father’s Day weekend.

According to Dan Gemus Real Estate Team, who is hosting the event, they expect to have four ribbers set up along the Ramsay Street closure.

Why would anyone think a downtown street for such an event is a suitable location?

This event has the potential to attract thousands and thousands of people to the downtown area. Just scroll through the photos on the Amherstburg Rotary Ribfest Facebook Page and look at all the cars and people that attended in 2019.

Where are the thousands expected to park for this event and what is going to be done about the bumper-to-bumper traffic on our streets all weekend long?

We all know that Ribfests are messy and should be held in a larger and more open setting such as the Libro property. Why would you want that mess around newly renovated buildings?

Are us downtown residents expected to put up with having to breath carcinogenic smoke fumes all weekend long? And depending on which way the wind is blowing, the sticky greasy smoke can cause damage to resident’s property and vehicles. Who will pay to have that cleaned up?

What about the residents at the Navy Yard Condominiums? Will their building and vehicles end up covered in grease from the barbeques? What about all the grease on the sidewalks and streets? Who is going to clean that up? What about the vermin it will attract afterwards?

It’s bad enough we have to put up with Open Air each weekend during the summer and the speeding traffic on our street, noise, and litter and now we get Ribfest rammed down our throats?

Shame on you for allowing this to take place downtown. We know without question that you would not want this type of event taking place in your neighbourhood. We would have thought council would have been more considerate than this.

It’s obvious that council has little regard for us downtown area residents and we will be taking this into consideration at our next municipal election.

Thank you for your time and we look forward to your written reply and explanation on why this was approved and who is going to pay for the damages and clean up.

Sincerely angered and appalled,

Concerned Downtown Residents